The Blurring Line Between Natural and Manmade Disasters

John McQuaid
, ContributorOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Troubled Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) president Masataka Shimizu (C) speaks to reporters after apologising to evacuees for the accident at his company's Fukushima Daiichi number 1 nuclear-power plant at a shelter at Koriyama city in...

The earthquake and tsunami that struck the Japanese coast in March 2011 were an extraordinary demonstration of the power of the earth's natural forces. The tsunami swept away entire towns and killed tens of thousands of people. And yet a Japanese parliamentary investigation has concluded that last year's nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear facility, which occurred in the tsunami's wake, were a "man-made disaster":

In a highly critical assessment published on Thursday, a Japanese parliamentary panel challenged claims by the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), that the triple meltdown at the plant in north-east Japan had been caused solely by a 14-metre tsunami on 11 March last year. The panel said the magnitude-9 earthquake that preceded the waves could not be ruled out as a cause of the accident.

It accused Tepco and regulators at the nuclear and industrial safety agency of failing to take adequate safety measures, despite evidence that the area was susceptible to powerful earthquakes and tsunamis.

"The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties," said the report, compiled by the Fukushima nuclear accident independent investigation commission.

"They effectively betrayed the nation's right to be safe from nuclear accidents. Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly 'man-made'.

The question of how to prepare for low-probability, high-consequence events is one of the most difficult in government and business. Being proactive can be a thankless task; it takes effort and money, and few get credit for avoiding disaster when something bad happens. It's easy to just let it slide, whether via active collusion, inertia, or both, which the report says is what happened here (PDF):

There were many opportunities for taking preventive measures prior to March 11. The accident occurred because TEPCO did not take these measures, and NISA [the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency] and the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) went along. They either intentionally postponed putting safety measures in place, or made decisions based on their organization’s self interest, and not in the interest of public safety.